Mali suspends UN mission military rotations for ‘security reasons’

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) – The Malian government has decided to suspend all military and police contingent rotations of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

Rotations that have already been announced or are scheduled will also be affected by the suspension. The suspension will last till a further decision is made after the holding of “a coordination meeting between the Malian structures concerned and MINUSMA,” according to a statement from the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The statement cited “reasons linked to the national security context” for the suspension. It also assured that Mali would work diligently to create conditions for lifting the suspension.

This decision has been made four days after the July 10 arrest of 49 soldiers from the Ivory Coast “with their weapons and war minutiae as well as other military equipment” at the international airport of President Modibo Keita Senou, in Bamako, the Malian capital.

The Malian government regarded them as mercenaries, whose “fateful intention” was to “break the momentum of the Refoundation and the securing of Mali, as well as the return to constitutional order,” said authorities.

The Ivory Coast government, however, insisted that the soldiers were present on Malian soil in the 8th rotation as part of operations from national support elements linked to the UN mission.

The Ivorian government has called on Mali to release “without delay, the unjustly arrested soldiers.”

None of the soldiers had weapons and ammunition of war when they got off the plane but the weapons of the contingent authorized by the United Nations were on a second plane, according to Executive Secretary of the Ivorian National Security Council, Fideme Sarasso.

But according to the Malian government, no rotation had been planned by MINUSMA on the day of their arrest.